This invention relates to an air resonator assembly for use in reducing noise adjacent to a vehicle engine wherein the air passes through a plurality of expanding and contracting chambers.
Vehicle engines are subject to a good deal of engineering effort. One major effort is to reduce the noise associated with an engine. An engine typically has an air supply system that communicates a source of air to the engine. This air supply system is also a source of noise, in that noise tends to travel back upstream towards the source of air from the engine. Thus, the air intake systems for engines are typically provided for a resonator assembly. The goal of resonator assemblies as used in the prior art is to reduce the engine noise to the extent possible.
While known air resonator systems have reduced the engine noise somewhat, it would still be desirable to further reduce engine noise. Typically, known resonator systems include a single chamber which communicates with the air supply to provide a chamber for dissipating engine noise.
The present invention discloses a system wherein the air flow and thus the engine noise each experience a series of expanding and contracting chambers.
In the disclosed embodiment of this invention, a resonator chamber is placed between a source of air and a vehicle engine. Air passes through the resonator chamber to the engine, and noise from the engine passes back through the chamber toward the source of air. The resonator chamber is preferably formed of a plurality of chambers which are of changing volume. Preferably, the engine noise passes into a chamber of relatively large volume which converges to a smaller volume. The noise then passes through a first chamber port of the first chamber and then into another enlarged volume which is again reduced. Air on the other hand enters into the chambers at a smaller area and moves towards a larger volume before passing through the ports. As known, the air passes in an opposed direction relative to the noise. The noise is repeatedly dissipated by the serially encountered expanding chambers.
In one disclosed embodiment the resonator is relatively flat, and formed of a plurality of wedge-shaped chambers. The air flow moves to one end of the resonator through a plurality of expanding volume wedge-shaped chambers and then back in an opposed direction through a second plurality of expanding wedge-shaped chambers. The vehicle noise goes through an opposed direction.
In a second embodiment, a plurality of bowl-shaped chambers are each positioned serially at a center of an outer resonator body with an enlarged chamber surrounding the bowl-shaped chambers. Air moving towards the engine moves through the serially connected bowl-shaped chambers into the surrounding chamber, and then back to the engine. Noise from the engine moves in an opposed direction such that it initially moves through the enlarged surrounding chambers back into the bowl-shaped central chambers. In this way, the noise is beneficially dissipated by the serially encountered increased and decreasing sized chambers.
These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description.